Contributions of labile and resistant organic materials to the immobilization of inorganic soil N when used in the restoration of abandoned agricultural fields

Citation

Tilston EL, Szili-Kovacs T & Hopkins D (2009) Contributions of labile and resistant organic materials to the immobilization of inorganic soil N when used in the restoration of abandoned agricultural fields. Soil Use and Management, 25 (2), pp. 168-174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-2743.2009.00213.x

Abstract
We have examined the contributions sucrose and sawdust make to the net immobilization of inorganic soil N and assimilation of both C and N into microbial biomass when they are used as part of a restoration plan to promote the establishment of indigenous vegetation on abandoned agricultural fields on the Central Hungarian Plain. Both amendments led to net N immobilization. Sucrose addition also led to mobilization of N from the soil organic N pool and its immobilization into microbial biomass, whereas sawdust addition apparently immobilized soil N into a non-biomass compartment or a biomass component that was not detected by the conventional biomass N assay (CHCl(3) fumigation and extraction). This suggests that the N was either cycled through the biomass, but not immobilized within it, or that it was immobilized in a protected biomass fraction different to the fraction into which N was immobilized in response to sucrose addition.

Keywords
ASSIMILATION; BIOMASS; C; ESTABLISHMENT; FIELD; FIELDS; LED; SOIL; VEGETATION

Journal
Soil Use and Management: Volume 25, Issue 2